The Wonderland Journal

Miles hiked: 12.5

Mile marker: 1154.5

The day begins with a vibrant sunrise that shines yellow above the mountains and a fire like clouds sits above it. Gray clouds are scattered over a pale blue morning sky. 

We get to walking and all pause about sixty seconds later. Everyone stops to take a photo of the beautiful morning!

I chat with Luxy for a bit as we make the climb up to a ridge. She’s out of breath when she stops and tells me she prefers to hike uphill alone. 

I get it. I’m ready to plug in my own stuff, too. 

I go solo for the next couple of hours. The trail opens up onto a ridgeline that exposes mountains at every angle. All I can see are trees and mountains layered in the distance. 

As I walk down the ridge line, I trees dressed in lime green fuzzy scarves. Soon I see two familiar hikers who I’ve gotten to know in the last couple of days — Spooky Noodle and Yellow Jacket. 

“Is my group far ahead?” I ask. 

“Maybe a mile,” Spooky says. I thank them and run off. Literally. 

For the next mile and a half, I run. The trail goes down and down, but I have to slow down to a walk when the terrain becomes so rocky that I’d break an ankle trying to get across it. 

I reach the road at last! I run the little bit to the road until I see a bunch of cars. I don’t know what’s going on here, but I slow to a walk so if someone talks to me it doesn’t appear as if I ran off a mountain being chased by a bear —I’m pretty out of breath. 

I run the last quarter of a mile down the pavement again until I reach a small mountain restaurant: Donner Ski Ranch. 

I find Rafiki and Bumper at the bar already with their 40 ounce free beer given to PCT hikers! I get mine too and order some chicken tenders, which I actually approve of!

Luxy joins us about half an hour later. We all chat with some hiker friends, and time slips away. 

“I want to stay here,” Luxy says. 

“I kind of do too,” I say. “Where is Voyager to help us make this decision?”

Bumper gets Voyager on the phone. Her thoughts are, “The slower you are on trail means less miles I’ll miss!”

That settles it! We’re staying!

We settle into our room, take showers with mercurial water temperature, and get pizzas for dinner. 

We even see Seaby and Poppy for a minute! It’s getting dark outside and cooling down, so it’s a short visit. 

“Want any food?” an older hiker asks me. I’m brushing my teeth, so I mumble in response and book it to the bathroom. On the way back, he gives me two ramens and two hiker meals!

It’s great!

I head upstairs and Luxy picks a movie: Two Popes. 

We got vortexed here — when you get sucked into a place on trail — but we’ll be back at it tomorrow!